Publishing contracts as employee benefits
How many aspiring authors are there are among the 30,000-plus employees of the Borders U.S. chain? Quillblog guesses a lot, and it looks as though Borders does too: the chain has announced it will publish a novel by one of its shelf-stackers, the winner of a contest that closes on Jan. 31, 2008.
Do you think the winning manuscript will be an angst-filled tale of a life stalled in a dead-end job until something wacky or earth-shattering happens? Nah, Quillblog doesn’t either.
(Thanks to GalleyCat for the link.)
Will Indigo be next?
I can see it now. The mega-bookstores will do away with all publishers entirely—not only will you buy books from them, they’ll also provide all the literary talent. Ingenious. And all on minimum wage!
But seriously, the shelf-stacker that wins will be over the moon. And who doesn’t need a break in this industry?
However, if you do want to read a deliciously funny tale of a life stalled in a dead-end job until something wacky or earth-shattering happens (at a mega-bookstore no less), pick up Corey Redekop’s novel Shelf Monkey.